1. The present invention relates to devices for scheduling and monitoring the dispensation of articles, such as medicines and pills.
2. Many people are required to ingest medicines, vitamins, and the like on a periodic basis. Because such consumption becomes a very routine and repetitive undertaking, it is common to find that a person cannot remember whether he has lately taken his scheduled dosage. For instance, a person of regular but not fastidious habits may find himself shortly after breakfast trying to recall whether he took at breakfast his regimen of pills. A further but lesser failing is that the person cannot remember how much of a particular consumable he is to take, especially when such information is omitted from the label of the bottle holding it.
Of course, the foregoing are problems that have been long recognized. But it has not been sufficient for a person to simply concentrate, or to make a written log or other record; the latter no doubt being due to the inconvenience. Mechanical apparatuses to aid in the recording and reminding about the consumption of medicines have been available heretofore. Cougias U.S. Pat. No. 2,512,485 discloses a system whereby daily toothbrush use may be kept track of by movement of tags on a wall mounted pegboard. Sharp et al. U.S. Pat. No. 3,841,260 discloses a pegboard system whereupon coded pegs are moved upon a matrix board to record consumption of foodstuffs. The pegs are color coded to aid in the monitoring function. A disadvantage of the foregoing system is that the pegs can be easily lost and not readily replaced, thereby rendering the system less useful. Similarly, Hollingworth et al. U.S. Pat. No. 4,148,273 discloses a device which also uses color coded pegs which are moved and rotated upon a board. Again, the arrangement has the disadvantage of relying upon the particular pegs. Furthermore, both the foregoing methods involve devices which are not readily stored with the medicines if made large, and if made small they present problems to people with limited dexterity.
Other devices are known for specific use with pills. For example, a container may have a multiplicity of compartments, identified according to the time period at which the pills are to be taken. The user fills each compartment beforehand with the pills to be taken at each scheduled time. Thereafter he removes them from each designated compartment when the appropriate time arrives; whether pills have been taken becomes visually evident. While effective, this system requires periodic counting and transfer of pills from their normal containers into the compartments. Although seemingly a slight task, many persons are thereby inconvenienced. Further, the system is not adaptable to liquid medicines which are best kept in the containers in which they are provided. Accordingly, there is a need for an improved way of scheduling and monitoring; one which allows the articles being dispensed to remain in their original containers, which does not involve components which can be lost, and which is easily used without great dexterity.